General Dynamics Land Systems, a business unit of General Dynamics, was recently awarded two contracts worth $44 million for Saudi Arabia's tank programme.

The contracts were awarded by the US Army Tacom Lifecycle Management Command on behalf of the Royal Saudi Land Forces.  This work is part of a plan by Saudi Arabia to upgrade its entire fleet of 314 tanks.

The first contract of $37.1 million is to provide materials and labour for the conversion of 42 M1A2 tanks to an M1A2S configuration for the Kingdom.

The M1A2S will possess defined capabilities that increase lethality while limiting obsolescence, a statement said.

The conversion work will be performed by current employees at the Joint Systems Manufacturing Center in Lima, Ohio, with an estimated completion date of September 20, 2012.

The second contract, worth $6.9 million, will provide the tools and equipment needed to outfit a production facility in Saudi Arabia for future conversion of M1A2 tanks to the M1A2S version. Work will be performed in Sterling Heights, Mich., with an estimated completion date of August 1, 2012.

These contracts extend work started in 2008 to design, develop, convert, implement and test a hybrid configuration of the M1A1, M1A2 and M1A2 system enhancement package (SEP) tank variants for Saudi Arabia. – TradeArabia News Service